TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1979 (11) TMI 271
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....57 (hereinafter referred to as the Taxation Act), is the short question that falls for consideration in this appeal by special leave directed against a judgment, dated April 14, 1969, of the High Court of Mysore. The material facts bearing on the question are as follows : The respondent, M/s. T. V. Sundaram Iyengar & Sons. Pvt. Ltd., whose registered office is in the State of Tamil Nadu, is a dealer in motor vehicles which are manufactured at Bombay. Some of those vehicles are sold in Mysore State, while others are sold outside Mysore State. But those vehicles which are sold outside the State of Mysore in other States pass through its territory under temporary registration number plates issued after receipt of token tax by the Bombay Mot....
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....1) a tax at the rates specified in part A of the Schedule shall be levied on all motor vehicles suitable for use on roads, kept in the State of Mysore: Provided that in the case of motor vehicles kept by a dealer in or manufacturer of such vehicles for the purpose of trade, the tax shall only be levied and paid by such dealer or manufacturer on vehicles permitted to be used on roads in the manner prescribed by rules made under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. Explanation.-A motor vehicle of which the certificate of registration is current shall, for the purpose of this Act, be deemed to be a vehicle suitable for use on roads. (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub- section (1), taxes at the rates specified in ....
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....es belonging to persons not resident in the State, the duration of such 'keeping' may be for a period shorter than a quarter but not exceeding thirty days. In the present case, there is no dispute that the vehicles concerned are capable of use on roads, and in fact, they journey by road through the State. The problem thus resolves itself into the issue : Whether the motor vehicles of the respondent which merely pass through the State of Mysore are 'kept' for the duration of their journey in the State of Mysore within the meaning of Section 3(2) ? In our opinion, the High Court has rightly answered this question in the negative. The word 'kept' has not been defined in the Taxation Act. We have, therefore, to interp....
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....indeed will be an absurd result. Such an interpretation of the word 'kept' will be wholly beyond the ken of the Legislature. In the view we take, we can derive support from two decisions of the English Courts. In Dudley v. Holland,(1) the appellant carried on a garage business adjoining a public road. He had bought a motor car in the course of his business and was offering for sale in the garage showroom. He moved that car into the public road in order to allow the showroom to be rearranged. There was no excise licence in force for the car. It was found there by a police constable. The appellant was charged with unlawfully keeping on a public road a mechanically propelled vehicle for which an excise licence was not in force, c....
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....ction enacted that no person or persons should have or 'keep' at any one time, being a dealer or dealers in gunpowder, more than 200 lb. of gunpowder, and not being such more than 50 lb. of gunpowder in any house, mill, etc., occupied by the same person or persons within certain limits. The question before the Court was whether a person who receives powder in the course of transit, and makes a necessary halt, instead of sending it on immediately, can be said to be "keeping' the same within the meaning of Section 11. Crompton, J. answered this question thus: "It seems to me that it is not made out that the mere halting in London, for the purpose of sending from one railway to another, when it is necessary that there shou....